CPAG: Child Poverty Map of the UK report published by Campaign to End Child Poverty
The Campaign to End Child Poverty has today published new figures that provide a child poverty map of the whole of the UK. The figures are broken down by parliamentary constituency, local authority and ward.
The figures reveal the wide disparity in poverty rates across the UK and within regions. For example, in London, the constituency of Poplar and Limehouse has a child poverty rate of 41 per cent compared to just 7 per cent in Richmond. In the North West, whereas 38 per cent of children in Manchester are poor, in Ribble Valley the figure is just 7 per cent.
The top 20 parliamentary constituencies for high child poverty rates in the UK are available from the CPAG press office on the contact details below.
Enver Solomon, Chair of the Campaign said:
“The child poverty map reveals the depth and breadth of child poverty across the country showing the gross levels of inequality that children face in every region. Far too many children whose parents are struggling to make a living are having to go hungry and miss out on the essentials of a decent childhood that all young people should be entitled to.
“The huge disparities that exist across the country have become more entrenched and are now an enduring reality as many more children are set to become trapped in long term poverty and disadvantage.
“Local authorities are having to deal with reduced budgets but they have critical decisions to make. We’re calling on authorities to prioritise low income families in the decisions they make about local welfare spending, including spending on the new council tax benefit, and on protecting families hit by the bedroom tax. This week we have written to local authority leaders in the local authorities with the most child poverty, asking them what they will do to tackle child poverty in their local area.
“The government must also closely examine its current strategy for reducing poverty and consider what more it could do to ensure millions of children’s lives are not blighted by the corrosive impact that poverty has on their daily existence.’’
ENDS
Notes to editors:
(1) The full national report is attached with the email distribution of this release, can be obtained on request under embargo from the Campaign (see contact details below) and will be published on the campaign’s website on 20 February 2013.
(2) There are 86 constituencies with relative low income poverty of 10% or lower – including both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister’s seats (Witney and Sheffield Hallam). Child poverty on this measure is already at or below the 10% target for 2020 in the Child Poverty Act on the relative low income measure (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/9/contents).
(3) While this report is based on the relative low income measure, it should not detract from the importance of the other three measures and targets in the Child Poverty Act: absolute low income, persistent low income and material deprivation. The variation shown in the map of areas of high and low rates of relative low income child poverty will reflect similar distributions of high and low rates for the other measures of child poverty in the Act.
(4) At a national level, End Child Poverty coalition members find the signs for child poverty are deeply worrying. Even though the latest available national figures showed a fall in relative poverty up until early 2011, because unlike median incomes, benefits were not falling in real terms, this improvement is now reversing. The Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts a growth in child poverty of 400,000 between 2011 and 2015, and a total of 800,000 by 2020 (http://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/comm121.pdf). This prediction came before recent announcements about benefits uprating: the Welfare Uprating Bill currently being debated in Parliament is predicted by DWP minsters to push another 200,000 children into relative low income poverty (impact assessments have not yet been given for the other three Child Poverty Act targets). We’re calling on the UK Government to set out how it will meet its commitments in the Child Poverty Act to end child poverty by 2020.
(5) Ward level data sheets for UK regions can be provided on request during the embargo period (please see regional contact details below). The local data has been produced to correspond as closely as possible to the official definition of poverty used by the government in its regional and national data. However, direct comparisons between the two data sets should not be made (a full explanation of the methodology can be found in the report).
(6) Enver Solomon, Chair of the End Child Poverty Campaign will be available for comment in national media. There will also be regional spokespeople available – for details see the contacts section at the end of the notes.
(7) The Government has legal duties under the Child Poverty Act 2010 to reduce child poverty to a series of targets across a set of measures by 2020. Every three years the government must publish a child poverty strategy setting out how it will do this. The government’s current child poverty strategy, for 2011 to 2014, can be found here: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%208061
(8) Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on predictions for child and working-age poverty from 2010 to 2020 can be found here: http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5372
(9) The Campaign to End Child Poverty (www.endchildpoverty.org.uk) is made up of more than 150 organisations from civic society including children’s charities, child welfare organisations, social justice groups, faith groups, trade unions and others, united in our vision of a UK free of child poverty.
Contacts:
UK national media only
Tim Nichols (ECP host organisation, Child Poverty Action Group)
020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
tnichols@cpag.org.uk
Regional media requests:
Please use the table below to find the right End Child Poverty contact for requests for regional data and for regional spokespeople. Note that regional press releases are also being distributed today for the Campaign by the member organisations indicated below.
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